Kicking Off 2008

This morning I took the kids to the park. It was a beautiful day with a little bit of wind. Time to finally give in to the kids' pleas on flying a kite. We had a bit of luck, but the wind was gusty; changing from nothing to a big gust and then back to nothing in a matter of seconds. We had our moments and for our first foray we did OK. The kids had fun and want to do it again.


The most excitement at the park was peeing against a tree. We walked to our local park and were there for awhile when nature called. However, the port-a-john that's usually there was gone; must be gone for the winter. So what to do? When I mentioned the idea of peeing against tree, Jacob couldn't drop his pants fast enough ;-) Faith on the other hand, I couldn't convince to squat down on the grass. I'm not really sure how that would've worked for anyway; I can see why many girls aren't big campers. So I called in the reserves and Karen came by in the mini-van to pick Faith up for a real potty break.

Later in the day, our friends Ken and Karen and their daughter Amanda came over to play. This was a bike riding event!! when it got too cold it was inside for the Smart Cycle.




They wound up staying for dinner and watching last night's ball drop with us. A real nice visit all around.

Pre-Thxgiving Project

Grandma and Grandpa came up Tuesday night, so we put them to work on Wednesday ;-) Grandma was working an art project with the kids while Grandpa and I built a geodesic dome climber.

Playtime In Long Island

The kids really enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa as well as seeing their NY aunts and uncles. They also fawned over Nathan giving him very sweet goodbye hugs.


Sunday the sun finally came out and the kids must have spent a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours playing in the park together with me and Grandpa.

The Final Sukkot Post

It's been so busy, I never got to post pictures from the weekend and the visit from Grandma & Grandpa. Sunday was a busy Sukkah day.
The morning got started with our friends Ken, Karen, and Amanda stopping off for bagels in the Sukkah. After breakfast it was playtime outside with Amanda and our neighbor's kids. If you have kids and don't own these stomp rockets, run out and get them. They are FUN. Amanda was a little big for Faith's bike (which if course Faith won't ride), but too small for the boys' bikes. Amanda handled the little bike really well and even got some speed out of those 10” wheels.
After a rest, it was to the main event... Our big Sukkah extravaganza – Pizza in the Sukkah. We had about 20 people over for pizza, beer, and some extra goodies. Lot of fun and Grandma and Grandpa arrived right on time all the way from NY.
My neighbor loves my parents; but who wouldn't.
The pizza was from Z-Pizza, which as far as chain/delivery places go, was excellent. We had a feta, mushroom and artichoke pizza (called the Casablanca) that was amazing.The party had lots of kids and all I think had a good time. Though, there was a lot of competition for the bikes and trikes. A lot of good sharing (and Daddys coaxing good sharing) done by all. Sukkot is now over... and I'm exhausted ;-)

Gotta Go Potty

Good behavior continues... Dare I say it, is someone getting sick. I hope not, but we'll see. These are from a park in Fairfax City. We hit McDonald's for breakfast; hot cakes all around. Meanwhile we left Karen home to pack up for the kids. On the way home we stopped at a park, but about 90 seconds after getting out of the car, Faith says she has to poop. The park we went to was only 2 minutes from our house, so back in the car and home to poop. While there Jacob pooped as well ;-) Then it was off again to the Fairfax City park; a little further from our house, but a better park. Kids had a good time and the weather was great. After nap time the kids played outside in the sprinklers and with the rocks on the driveway. Faith missed all the activity; taking a 3 hour nap. Look at that... TEAMWORK!

Karen's New Camera - Take II

Yesterday Karen got a new camera that was purse'able. You may recall we tried this a month ago with a casio, but it took very poor movies. This time we went back to a Kodak which we have liked in the past. This unit is the M753 and so far so good, though the battery life may be a little weak; something to watch. Here are its first pictures and videos courtesy of Karen: And a video: And a test of Blogger's new video upload feature didn't work. Will try again tomorrow.

Visit To Stacy's Turf

Yesterday Karen, her helper Stacy, and the kids ventured into Maryland. They hit a butterfly garden and then a park. Tomorrow is Stacy's last day with us, so this is a bit of an ode to her. I hardly got a chance to meet her since she left our house typically before I got home. But, the kids seemed to have really liked her and speak of her often.
Gotta to love the mix of faces. the best of the bunch.	Believe it or not these two were
This is hip-hop Jacob with baggy pants and oversized shirt.
I have no clue what was going on here.	You're invited to create your own caption.
.

No Zoo For You

We tried going to the zoo today, as it was for a day for members only. The problem was that the zoo was a zoo today. We drove in and got their at 10am, however, the lot was already full and the were just flooding in. We decided to turn around and head to clemyjontri park. The carousel is no longer free ($1.50/ride) but its still is a great park.
Jacob really likes to climb
Meanwhile Reuben tired Jacob and I out by running around thet rack that circles the park; twice! Reuben: “I love to run” Right after this shot Faith dragged me off to get tokens for the carousel. Everyone waited in line very patiently, as it 3 rides went by while we waited, and in the end it was well worth it.
After a nap (I was the only one that actually napped) the boys and I went on an adventure. We rode around our neighborhood. They took their bikes and I rollerbladed. This was the boys first time off our court with their bikes. All in all, it wasn't pretty but they needed the practice. They are very apprehensive of even minor hills and need work on governing their braking. Jacob also has a tendency when starting to get our of control on the bike of taking his feet off the pedals. I think his instinct tells him that he can stop the bike with his feet, but his feet don't touch the ground. He then has no way of braking and really loses control and scares himself. Reuben is on the other extreme and won't get off the brake going down a hill. We practiced a lot but in the end they mostly walked the bikes when it wasn't flat. More practice is needed.

Pot Luck Picnic

It was a nice, hot, day today. In the morning we went to the post office to order passports for the kids. What a racket! $52 per kid, plus the post office charges an extortion fee of another $30 per kid. Anyway, the kids were very well behaved and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. Did a few more errands then lunch at Subway. Following in my Dad's footsteps, I picked the hottest day yet to start doing some cutting around the yard. Didn't do too much, but did overstuff one of my big garbage pails. Best of all, Jacob was a big help cleaning up. Then in the evening we had our community picnic. Pretty good turnout with lots of kids. The only let down was that very few desserts were brought, though there was a lot of watermelon.
We bought these mats at Walmart earlier in the day for a $1.50 a piece. How can you beat that.
Reuben and Jacob played a lot with the “older” kids. This is what Reuben learned from one of them. Jacob learned the stunt as well. (Maybe I'll post the movie)	Jacob and Reuben were desperate to get as high up the tree as the monkey boy. Reuben was doing a lot of trash talking, but not much climbing. While, Jacob got some height.
Speaking of monkey boy.... Thanks to Karen, Faith got some good height of her own. And of course she knows how to play it up for the camera. Jacob had an incredible appetite today. Here he is on his third plate of macaroni and cheese.
Finally, it wasn't just the parents and kids that enjoyed themselves. This little guy was ballsy enough to start picking at the garbage in the middle of the picnic